What a night it was last night! So many enthusiastic Cheapskaters all anxious to find out the secrets to shopping at Aldi and keeping their grocery bill low.

And tonight, I get to do it all again at Aldi, Mandurah and then in Adelaide at Aldi, West Lakes on Saturday. Don't I have a great job? I get to meet lots and lots of like-minded people and share hints, tips and ideas with them and as a bonus they share their hints, tips and ideas with me.

If you didn't make it to a workshop, don't worry. The Cheapskates Club member's centre is full of great ideas that will save you money, time and energy every day.

"Hi Cath, looking forward to learning lots and sharing with others. What a great group. Helping others with recipes, hints and tips, etc. Already making and using the washing powder for some time before I joined. It's fantastic! My 2 boys (husband and son) are both high allergy people and scratch and itch when cloths are washed in "regular" washing powder, not to mention the "my sheets are itchy" complaints. Now! No more itching, scratching, twitching, pulling at cloths and sheets, etc. We are amazed! We all thought it was just something you had to "put up with", NOT SO. Thanks Kath for the recipe, I will never buy washing powder again! AND it's cheap! Cindy

Yesterday was a long, long day for me, up at 4.30am and not getting to bed until 12.30am, so I'm off to grab a cat nap before I meet with some journalists who all have lots of questions about living the Cheapskates way.

Stretch PotatoesNormally I would cook my potatoes with the skin on to retain the vitamins and fibre. With tiny tots now in the family I have to peel the veg because they still struggle to chew the skin. With so many baked meals leading up to the big day I have a lot of potato peel left over. This I keep and crisp in the chip maker and add as a side dish with our left-over meals of fritters or stir fries. Struggling to make ends meet. Peel the potato, cook for one meal and add the crisped peels for the next meal. The kids love it.Contributed by Linda Stapeleton

Building a Christmas Cash StashMy husband and I are both paid on the same day each fortnight, so at the end of each fortnightly budget cycle, any cash (notes) we have left over is immediately placed somewhere safe as savings for Christmas, this can be banked if you feel that would be a safer choice. Any coins are placed in a large money box and banked at a later stage also. We started a little late last year, but it is the first Christmas that I can remember feeling totally stress free about money! We also paid for both our work Christmas party functions out of our stash of cash!Contributed by Karyn Jansen

Easy Seed SortingI enjoy growing my own vegies and flowers from seeds but I have trouble remembering what I have and the use by date, so often buy doubles or triples of the same thing. Now I put the seed packets into the photo sleeves of a photo album. I have arranged them in alphabetical order and labelled each page with a letter for easy access and easy identification.Contributed by Cynthia Tay

This is the sixteenth year we have had an official No Spending month, complete with guidelines and tools to help you survive a whole month of no spending.

By taking a break from spending, especially at the beginning of the year, right after the Christmas and back-to-school expenses you are setting yourself up with good spending habits for the rest of the year.

It takes 21 repetitions to develop a habit, so by not spending for 28 days you have not only developed the habit but reinforced it too!

Of course, you'll need to spend some money during February. It would be unrealistic to expect you to not spend a cent. But the difference is you'll only be spending money you've budgeted for. Every cent you spend will be allocated in your Spending Plan so you know exactly where it is to go.

The rules are simple:

In line with our spending freeze you can spend money on essential items such as:Rent/mortgageUtilities: gas, electricity, phone, water if the bill is due during the month (but look for ways to lower these bills during the month so the next bill is cheaper)Food: shop at home first. Check your pantry, fridge and freezer and menu plan with what you have. You may find, like me, that you really don't need to go grocery shopping this month.Medical/pharmacy: don't scrimp on your health – the future cost would be far too greatPetrol and transport: unless you can walk everywhere you'll need your car. But try to limit how far you go and how often you use it. Carpool if you can, share the school run with another mother, make one trip and do all your errands. Ditto for bus, train and tram. If you have a bike now might be a good time to start riding to work or school.Other regular monthly bills you have

You can't spend money onmagazinestakeaway mealsmoviesnew clothestoysDVDs and CDsmanicuresor anything else that isn't essential to living for 28 days.

The Cheapskate's Club website is over 3,000 pages of money saving hints, tips and ideas. Let's get together and make the Cheapskates Club Australia's largest online hint, tip and idea library. Share your favourite money saving, time saving or energy saving hint and be in the running to win a one-year membership to The Cheapskate Club. We publish a Winning Tip each Thursday, so enter your great money, time or energy saving idea now.Share your favourite hint or tip that saves money, time and energy and be in the running to win a one-year subscription to The Cheapskate Journal.

Method:Combine 1/2 cup plain yoghurt with tandoori paste. Stir into chicken strips. Marinate 30 minutes. Heat a non-stick fry pan and stir fry chicken strips in batches. Served wrapped in a tortilla with the lettuce, tomato and grated cheese. Top with raita.

This week we will be eating:

Sunday: Roast Beef

Monday: Mini meatloaves, salad

Tuesday: Spinach Ricotta Ravioli, salad

Wednesday: Tandoori chicken, salad, naan bread

Thursday: MOO Pizza

Friday: Tacos

Saturday: Homemade Subs

In the fruit bowl: grapes, bananas

In the cake tin: Lunchbox CookiesThere are over 1,500 other great money saving meal ideas in the Recipe File.

6. The $300 a Month Food Challenge

Guerrilla Grocery Shopping Part 3: Go Generics!

Be brave, don't be afraid to try new brands, even if they are generic!

I will confess to being a bit of a brand snob - for the things that matter to me.

And I struggled a little when Aldi first opened, then again with Costco, because I didn't recognise the brands. But when you are shopping on a tight budget you can't afford to not try something to find out if it is going to meet up to your standards and save you some money.

Let's face it: sugar is sugar, flour is flour. For these basics, I haven't noticed a difference in anything but the price. Try it, if you don't like the product you don't have to keep on buying it. But if generic white vinegar is $1.09 for 2 litres and the brand name is $1.89 for 2 litres you'd be nuts to be paying the extra 80 cents just for a fancier name on the bottle.

Yes, brand matters - sometimes. I have a brand of coffee that I will not budge on. I have tried others and I don't like them and frankly life is just too short to drink lousy coffee and be miserable. I stock up when it's on sale (coffee has a few sheets in my price book) so I never pay full price for it. And every morning as I take that first sip, I smile, knowing I have my favourite brew at a budget price.

It is totally OK to have a couple of favourite brands that you stick with. Savvy Cheapskaters know how to get them at rock bottom prices. But for everything else, don't be brand loyal.

Platinum Cheapskates Club members have their very own Cheapskating blogs, and they are wonderful and inspirational and encouraging and even funny. This week's featured blog is written by ED.

Reason #547829 Why I Should Ban My Husband from Cooking...

So now that I'm feeling better, I've worked out a fortnightly meal plan. I carefully planned meals for two weeks, using what meat we already have (I'm determined to empty my chest freezer!). I got called in to my second job tonight, so I went along and Husband asked if he could swap tonight's meal for tomorrow night's meal (curried sausages is his fave). I said fine, no worries. WRONG ANSWER! He used the entire kilo of sausages I bought, they were supposed to last three meals in the fortnight! He used almost an entire bag of frozen peas, two onions, two tins of coconut milk (bye bye, Laksa!) and the mushrooms I had put aside for homemade pizza night.

I was a bit stunned when I got home, because when I do curried sausages, I use about 6-8 sausages, one onion, a cup of frozen peas and one tin of coconut milk. And it's enough for our dinner and his lunch the next day. I refuse to do anymore grocery shopping for the fortnight (except for milk). Husband's job for tomorrow is to re-plan the meals that his using-of-all-the-sausages has killed. Honestly, he thinks he's Jamie Oliver or something. He really thinks he has culinary prowess, but he really doesn't. I know I sound like an ingrate, but I'd rather he didn't cook. One time I asked him for sliced tomato on toast for breakfast and he put so much salt on it I had to spit it out. I now make my own. Maybe that was his plan all along!

I must take some of the blame. I will now write out on the meal plan EXACTLY what ingredients must be used and how much. I got a wonderful meal planner from Kmart that came in a pack with my family planner and a to-do list for $10. It's massive and has loads of space to write everything. I've been using pencil so I can erase it and re-use pages as much as possible.

Last week's question was from Kathy Watford who wrote"Hi, I was wondering if anyone can recommend a food processor. I don't want a blender as my old one works fine as does my old stick mixer. Thanks, any help will be greatly appreciated. "

I loved this question, it is one I have been asked a few times. I have a Breville food processor that was an engagement present 29 years ago; I use that food processor 4 -5 times a week to chop, grate and mix and my only complaint is that now we're a family of adults sometimes the bowl isn't big enough. That means I'm just being lazy and not wanting to empty the bowl when it is full. I even use it to grate soap when I'm making Cheapskates Washing Powder. Like Julie, I can thoroughly recommend Breville food processors.

Julie Whitelaw answeredIf you want a work horse I can thoroughly recommend a Breville food processer. Not the cheapest, I have had mine about 15 years and done some serious work and it hasn't missed a beat.

Lynn Dann answeredThe processor I have is a Magimix. It was very pricey but I have had it since 1992 and it's still going strong, I also found out that you can replace the bowl if necessary. I would strongly recommend this make.

Pauline Day answeredI bought a Sunbeam Multiprocessor. On sale it was about $79. It does absolutely everything. It has 2 blades for slicing, one thicker than the other from making potato crisps to potato bake and slices of fruit and veggies for your salads. Another blade chops all the veggies for soups and casseroles making life a breeze. Another blade also does whipping. There are 6 different blades all up. All packed away on the back of the machine so you don't have to go looking for them in the cupboard. So compact and simple to use. Hope this helps you.

10. This Week's Question

Priyanka writes"I have a coffee grinder machine. The motor works perfectly fine but the top plastic cover has developed cracks on it. I feel bad to purchase an entire machine only because of that. Any suggestions? I had bought it only about a year back from Myer and lost the receipt to add to my misery."

Do you have the answer?

If you can help Priyanka let us know. We'll enter your answer into our Tip of the Week competition, with a one-year membership to the Cheapskates Club as the prize too. Send your answer

11. Ask Cath

We have lots of resources to help you as you live the Cheapskates way but if you didn't find the answer to your question in our extensive archives please just drop me a note with your question.

I read and answer all questions, either in an email to you, in my weekly newsletter, the monthly Journal or by creating blog posts and other resources to help you (and other Cheapskaters).

For just 10 cents a day you can join the Cheapskates Club and get exclusive access to the Cheapskate Journal, the monthly e-journal that shows you how to cut the costs of everyday living and still have fun.

Joining the Cheapskates Club gives you 24/7 access to the Members Centre with 1000's of money saving tips and articles.

How do I change my email address?This one is easy. Members can update their email address or any other details by clicking on "Edit Profile" directly under their membership number after they have logged in to the Member's Centre. Subscribers to our free newsletter can use the Change Your Address form (under Customer Service in the menu) and fill it out. Once you've filled it in click the send button and we'll do the rest. Please remember to include your old email address so we can find it in the list as well as the new one.

How do I know when my membership should be renewed?When you login to the Member's Centre you will be told how many days of membership you have left once you have 30 days left. Just click on the link to renew and your membership will just continue on, uninterrupted.

What will you do with my email address?We never rent, trade or sell our email list to anyone for any reason whatsoever. You'll never get an unsolicited email from a stranger as a result of joining this list.Read our privacy policy

How Did You Get on Our List?You signed up to receive our Free Newsletter at our Cheapskates Club Web site or are a Platinum Cheapskates Club member

14. Contact Details

The Cheapskates Club -Showing you how to live lifedebt free, cashed up and laughing! PO Box 5077 Studfield Vic 3152